Podcasts

Changing Your Filter

Episode 65: Changing Your Filter
Guest: Andrea Leda Wilborn

This week’s guest on the Women Rocking Wall Street Show is Andrea Leda Wilborn. She is a coach, intuitive and behind-the-scene’s worker in Portland, Oregon. Andrea began her journey through social work and counselling, and eventually moved to creative arts, consulting, and fitness. Today, she has taken her experiences in all fields and turned them into a business, helping entrepreneurs offer their gifts to the world in real and powerful ways.

One area of expertise for Andrea is Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), which refers to how one can speak to the brain and how we can use language to shift how we store data. There is no way that our brain can process all the information that we encounter on a daily bases. By using our central nervous system (5 senses), our brain reads our environment. We also use our stories and experiences to filter information, determining what we see and what we don’t. Andrea works with clients to help ensure they have the right filters in place to help them focus on their goals and achievements.

Andrea’s hope is to get everyone to look in the mirror and realize that they are the only solution to any perceived problem that they can see outside of themselves. Through asking the right questions, she strives to shift limits and therefore changes the experience for each of her clients. This not only empowers others, but also creates accountability for achieving goals.

For anyone who is looking for a shift in their career, Andrea challenges you to ask yourself a powerful question – if I knew I could not fail. It puts fear and failure aside and provides you with access to information and data that is available inside you that was previously hidden by negative emotions. Also, she tells us all to stop pretending that something isn’t accessible.

If you would like to learn more about Andrea, be sure to check out her website, andrealeda.com. She also has a powerful weekend coming up in September called Awaken Your Practice, a 3-day immersion into the soul of your business.

Thanks for listening. If you liked what you heard, be sure to hit subscribe, share it with others and write us a quick review on iTunes.

Challenging the Gender Gap

Episode 52: Challenging the Gender Gap
Guest: Emily Viner

I am so excited that it’s April and winter is finally past us. I hope that you’re enjoying the weather and being outdoors as much as I am.

My guest this week has been making a difference in gender balance in the financial industry and sales, and she is calling on others to help. Emily Viner, Vice President of Agency Management & Leadership at The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America has found her passion and is hoping to help other women find theirs too.

After graduating  with a degree in Marketing and Economics, Emily spent some time applying for marketing positions. During one interview she was asked to do a typing test. Concerned that she would be seen more as a secretary, she knew that there was more purpose in her life and turned down the job. Eventually, she came across an ad for sales in finance. Not knowing what that meant, she went and spoke with people at the company. After learning more, she became fascinated, especially by the fact that she could help others while making a comfortable living.

Knowing that women make great advisors and that women tend to buy from other women, the Guardian conducted research on why there was such a gender gap in the financial industry. After surveying several thousand women, they found that it was the sales portion of the industry that wasn’t appealing. They also found that women spent most of their time being competent and less time being confident, which has also been validated through brain science. This results in women not being comfortable with taking risks.

If this sounds like you, Emily recommends being authentic but to also learn how to say “yes” even when you don’t know how. The pressure to always be perfect and to avoid risks is holding you back. Also, we all need to get better at helping other women gain more confidence and to pull each other up.

Emily took her research and presented it to the industry through a conference with over 26,000 attendees. After her presentation, Emily challenged the industry to form a coalition to help encourage change towards gender imbalance. Over 400 people came together to look at several pieces that needed to change, and to encourage the sales aspect of the industry. During a 90 minute session, there was a huge response, which included companies from 8 different countries. At the end of the conference, 150 people signed up to take part in the coalition, with a goal to make an impact by March of 2017.

I’ve provided the executive summary and infographic to provide more context to what was discussed today. To find out more or to get involved, reach out to Emily at EViner@glic.com.

Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of the Women Rocking Wall Street show! If you liked what you heard, be sure to hit subscribe, share it with others and write us a quick review on iTunes.

 

The Power Pose

Episode 42: The Power Pose

It’s been a great first year of the Women Rocking Wall Street, and I’ve had the pleasure of following up with Tracy Bagli Hooper, who was my very first guest when I first launched WRW. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to episode two, Confidence is Contagious, Tracy is the creator of The Confidence Project, an organization dedicated to helping others build confidence in their lives. As she likes to say, “the Confidence Project is an equal opportunity endeavor.” According to Tracy, confidence may have a genetic component, and even though some people may have a slight genetic advantage, it’s possible to build confidence through training our brain for a confidence mindset.

Have you ever heard of the Power Pose? It’s a technique for building confidence for a meeting, interview or any event where you want to build and demonstrate your best self.  It changes the hormones in your brain and help you reduce Cortisol and increase Testosterone.  It’ll not only affect how you feel but how others feel about you. Studies indicated the people who were perceived as smarter and more competent are the ones who do the Power Pose.  It’s free, takes 2 minutes a day! Watch the TED Talk with Amy Cuddy here.

Tracy sees a great value in momentum and is sharing her services to as wide a range of people as possible.  She learned that narrowing focus too quickly can adversely affect momentum. There is certainly value in developing a niche and a focus, but be careful not to niche down too quickly. She also reminds us to be aware of the skills and talents we possess; we might be fluent in areas that others find completely baffling. The knowledge we take for granted might be the crucial knowledge that others need, and this gives us the opportunity to help others move forward too.  Remember: What we know, others might not know.

There are some great books for growth and development that Tracy recommends, including: “The Confidence Code” by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman; “The Defining Decade” by Meg Jay; “Key Person of Influence” by Daniel Priestly; and “Playing Big” by Tara Moore. If you’d like to get in touch with Tracy and learn more about The Confidence Project, visit her site at confidenceproject.com, or visit her on Facebook or send her a quick email.

If you liked this episode, be sure to share it with others and head over to iTunes and write a review. Also, thanks for listening!

Permission to Take Up Space

Episode 41: Permission to Take Up Space

Now that it’s the time of year when we’re stuck in crowded lines at the mall, we are very aware of the physical space that we take up. Our natural instinct is to make ourselves as small as possible. But our guest, Rachel Beohm has a lot to say about our body language and the way to inhabit the space around us to portray the authentic and strong people we are.

Curious by nature, and with an unquenchable thirst for learning (especially when it comes to nonverbal communication and the mind-body connection), Rachel loves researching topics for FORTE, brainstorming and making connections. Rachel is passionately interested in the connection between authenticity and how we inhabit our physical space.

Part of what makes our daily lives so hard is that our mental lives often don’t line up with the way we feel about the space around us. It’s time that we stop retreating from the world and take up the space we know is ours. When we give ourselves permission to fill the space around us, people pick up on that and read it as confidence.

Rachel provides sound, thoughtful advice for anybody who struggles with communicating boldly. The three things she says to keep in mind are voice (making sure we avoid up ward inflection especially when giving important information), breathing (focusing on breathing invites an audience in and makes you calmer), and being willing to take up the space that’s yours (your stance and body language speak volumes). Expanding the space you take up in your mind communicates the confidence that so many of us are searching for.

For more information on the work Rachel is doing visit nonverbalforte.com. Also be sure to sign up for their amazing newsletter, The F Word. And if nothing else make sure you read her insightful and practical article The Authenticity vs Confidence Conundrum. You won’t be disappointed.

If you liked this episode be sure to share it with those you think might find this valuable. Also, head over to iTunes and write a quick review if you liked what you heard. Lastly, thanks for listening!